


One Thousand and One Statements

by theghostseer



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fairy Tale Style, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 07:47:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26469676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theghostseer/pseuds/theghostseer
Summary: Based on One Thousand and One Nights, because I can't get the idea off my head. Plus I could write an essay on why the act of storytelling in exchange for love/one more day alive is peak Jonelias...
Relationships: Elias Bouchard | Jonah Magnus/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Elias Bouchard/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Kudos: 16





	One Thousand and One Statements

**Author's Note:**

> Based on One Thousand and One Nights, because I can't get the idea off my head. Plus I could write an essay on why the act of storytelling in exchange for love/one more day alive is peak Jonelias...

In the chronicles of old civilizations, we read of entities, who were fed with fear and many times tried to take over humanity and establish their reign of terrors. For their ill purposes, those entities took subjects, avatars that helped them achieved their goals.

One of those entities was known as the Eye, and it had an avatar more skilled and vicious than others. Jonah Magnus, for that, was his name, was a talented man, resourceful and with a certain statue that allowed him to open the Magnus Institute, and that in a sense became his kingdom.

There he collected all sorts of information on the paranormal and esoteric. People would come by to tell their stories, and strange artefacts were well guarded in the basement of the building.

All the employees loved to work there, for, despite the danger, the Institute always remained a well-guarded shelter, where no other entity dared to enter.

Now the Head of the Institute had an archivist whom he loved profoundly. It was his greatest pleasure to surround her with luxury, to give her power beyond imagination, to share with her his most secret and sacred knowledge.

So he was devastated when, after several years, he discovered that Gertrude had deceived him completely. She had not only sided with the enemy but also had made it her purpose to put an end to his plans. Then, Jonah, full of anger and sorrow, killed the archivist himself.

In fact, the revelation shook Jonah to the point that he decided he could no longer trust any of his employees. As for the crimes of his archivist, those would be paid with blood.

Yet the role of the archivist was a vital one. So every evening Jonah vowed to take a new one and had them killed the following morning before his assistant, Martin, whose duty was to provide these unhappy creatures to the Head of the Institute.

The assistant fulfilled his task with a heavy heart, but there was little he could do to escape. All employees were bounded to the Institute and the Institute was bounded to its Head. Disobey and find an even more grotesque ending than death.

Every day the assistant saw an archivist rise and an archivist fall. And slowly the Institute was shifted to a fearful place. The air filled with curses and the employees desperately looking for a way to leave.

Time passed and Jonah, now known with a new name, equipped with a new body, decided it was time for the ritual to be complete. To finally wear his crown and gain dominion over humanity.

He commanded his assistant to find him a new archivist. One capable enough to perform the ritual, yet disposable enough to be killed at once afterwards.

Martin had a friend in the Institute whom he loved deeply and would talk to him about Jonah's sinister deeds, hoping that somehow they could put an end to this madness.

When Jon learned what Jonah planned next, he caught Martin's hands into his own and said:

"We have been friends for how long?'

"Enough years to have lost count,"

"And you could say I have helped you enough for you to own me a favour? And you, of course, cannot deny?"

"That much is true,"

"Then send me to Jonah. He wants a different archivist this time, and it would be a great opportunity for me - for us - to be chosen,"

"Are you out of your mind?" Martin exclaimed, not being able to proceed the request. "Don't you know what he will do to you? What fate awaits you once he is done?"

"Oh I do," said Jon, "and again it is an opportunity, we cannot afford to lose,"

"I cannot accept your request," Martin insisted "why would you have a death wish?"

"Because we might not have another chance to stop him," Jon said and did not explain himself further. In reality, it was a call from within that guided him, leading him to take this reckless task.

In the end, he persuaded Martin to agree and the next morning the assistant took him to Jonah's office.

Jonah accepted him with much excitement, for this one had indeed a strange beauty that made Jonah unable to resist the urge and ask what made his new archivist weep.

"You see," Jon said, "I have a friend whom I love dearly and loves me as much. We have always found great comfort in statements of all sorts. It breaks me that I didn't have time to read him the last one yesterday as a final goodbye. And so I was wondering if you could let me record something for him. And then you do as you wish."

Jonah, amused by the idea, consented and send for a tape recorder. They sat across the desk and once the recorder was brought Jon looked at Jonah, asking for his permission to start.

"Willingly," he answered, smirking.

Without breaking eye contact, Jon pressed the start button and

"Statement begins..."

**Author's Note:**

> And what if the king still falls in love with Scheherazade, but this time she helps him execute the wives.
> 
> Also, the full text of Arabian Nights can be found here http://www.gutenberg.org/files/128/128-h/128-h.htm


End file.
